The Strange Science Of Sexual Attraction

Smell, subconscious masculine and feminine markers identify potential mates before personality comes into play.

Lots more at HuffPo.

A more useful way to describe wind speed

Valentine's Day links

A dose of cynicism for Valentine's Day.

Horror movie-themed Valentine's Day cards, including the Sharknado card. Related: Klingon cards.

Forget chocolate on Valentine’s Day, try semen, says Surgery News editor. Retraction, resignation follow.

Video: The Science of Chocolate (aka the real meaning of Valentine's Day).

The history of those chalky little pastel hearts with sayings on them. 

A collection of really nerdy Valentine’s Day cards (open list, so you can add your own).

Video: How The Heart Came to Be Associated With Love.

7 Aphrodisiac Cocktails to Put You in the Mood.

Everything you ever wanted to know (and more) about My Funny Valentine.

Anti-Valentine's Day cards from a bygone era. 

The Best Valentine’s Day Cards To Buy For Your Favorite Geek.

Prepare to be offended - the Holy Crap worst Valentine's Day card ever, plus runners-up.

Video: How The Heart Came to Be Associated With Love

One for Valentine's Day:

via Mental Floss

Heh: Dallas mom who beat the crap out of high-speed chase driver who hit her van gets free car

A local car dealer gave her a new car to replace the damaged van:



Lots more at Dallas News

This Year’s Best Picture #Oscar Nominees, In Under 4 Minutes

Now you can have an opinion on the nominees 982 minutes faster than watching the actual films.

* American Sniper

* Birdman

* Boyhood

* The Grand Budapest Hotel

* The Imitation Game

* Selma

* The Theory of Everything

* Whiplash

via Digg

Arch Enemies

'Fifty Shades of Grey' puzzles given to Pa. middle school children

MONESSEN, Pa. – Parents in a Pennsylvania school district are turning 50 shades of red over word search puzzles given to middle school students based on an erotic novel and movie.

The students in Monessen were given puzzles based on "Fifty Shades of Grey" that contained terms including "spanking," ''submissive," ''leather cuffs" and "bondage." Other words on the list were more explicit.

Parent James Carter complained about it at Tuesday night's school board meeting, saying he tried to question the school's principal and dean of students, but they refused to talk when he insisted on recording their conversation.

"I wanted to record the conversation because a lot of parents had questions about it, and I was denied that," Carter told the board.

Monessen district officials said at the meeting that they couldn't discuss the issue because they just learned about it Monday. Superintendent Leanne Spazak said the circumstances of the puzzle are under investigation.

More at Fox News

Related: Fifty Shades of Grey - the Lego Trailer

From 1913, French postcard with the tallest, shortest and fattest men of Europe playing cards

I wish I knew more about this - please leave further information in the comments if you have any!

via So Bad So Good.

Check out this video of a ditch bank mower

I frequently look at hard to reach places and wonder how they're maintained. This is rather fascinating:

From a previous, sort of related post, this video of a helicopter with giant drop-down disk cutter trimming trees away from power lines (bonus gallery of large helicopters at the post):

Fifty Shades of Grey - the Lego Trailer

I admit that I have not read these books. Holy cow, this movie looks awful. I suspect the Lego version is an improvement.

Related: apparently the condo building described in the books really exists in Seattle:

While the "Fifty Shades" trilogy and movie have caused some headaches for Escala residents, there have also been perks, the greatest of which has been the skyrocketing home values since the book's release - according to real estate website Zillow, the median sales price for a Seattle condo has risen about 10% since 2010. The median sales price for Escala apartments, however, have surged over 75%.